Don’t even get me started on FPL, I’ve written here, and here that I think FPL are crooks and are squeezing the people of Florida for as much as they can, imposing unfair rules, taking deposits that they hold for months and collect interest on – it’s borderline criminal. The reason they can do this is because they have the monopoly. Add complicit political leaders to the mix and you have a company which is pretty much running its own show here. Judging from the comments left on my FPL posts, I think it’s safe to say I’m not alone with my opinion.
Well, I was just sent a link from a friend that contained information that nearly made my head explode. The website eyeonmiami.blogspot.com features this article where the author describes a critical incident that occured last year at the Turkey Point Nuclear Facility located in Miami. According to an article in the Miami Herald, court papers have revealed that there was a feud going on between FPL and the plant manager, who was trying to adhere to much stricter rules than FPL wanted.
Here’s a quote from the Miami Herald article from E.C. Morse, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley:
xenon is a chemical element that is a byproduct of nuclear fission and ”gobbles up neutrons,” reducing the fission process.
During regular operation, the xenon’s effect is neutralized, but when control rods shut down the core, the xenon process keeps going for another 10 hours or so. To bring a reactor back online after only 10 or 11 hours ”is really asking for trouble,” Morse said.
The biggest nuclear disaster in history, at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, happened because operators tried to restart the reactor too soon after a shutdown, Morse said.
So, what he’s saying is that haste was one of the main reasons for the disaster. What the court papers revealed in the case of Turkey point was the fact that Hoffman the plant manager was raising serious safety concerns over the fact that FPL heads wanted the plant to be brought online again after an automatic shut down. The shut down had occurred due to a “blunder” made by a power worker at a substation located several miles away. In order to keep the loss of revenue low, FPL urged to bring the plant up again within 12 hours with the heavy objections of Hoffman who decided to walk out after these decisions were made as he didn’t want to have any part of unsafe procedures. Hoffman’s resignation letter and various other links are available on the Miami Herald website in regards to this.
What does all this tell us as South Florida residents? Not only is FPL raping us on fees, unfair practices and treatment, but they’re obviously also putting financial gain before safety by inisting on procedures and timelines that have widely been criticized. The hero in all this to me is Hoffman – it’s very rare to hear or see people stand up for what they know it’s right, no matter what consequences it has on their life or career. It has already been reported that plant workers are fearful of coming forward and that FPL’s statement encouraging anyone to bring up safety concerns are a front.
This is the world the Republicans want to live in – no oversight, no control just utter corruption and incompetence at the hands of private industry officials. To trust in this kind of thinking, is to trust your children with a drunk driver and hope for the best.
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This article was written by Alex - Author's Website
